Winemaker Notes
A study in terrior in one word, Flood. A vibrant purple, there's a black fruit thrust to the aroma, adorned by a touch of star anise and cola. The flavors are more demonstrative - dark and blue, rippling, pure, saturating, they reach the edge of your mouth the way color reaches the edge of the glass. In its texture the wine is at its most seductive, the purity of fruit held in place by a skidding, gravelly grip
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Crisp and tangy, with a burr of tannins around a sharp core of ripe cherry and blackberry flavors, hinting at wet earth as the finish lingers
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Fire+Flood The Flood Pinot Noir comes from sedimentary soils, vines on low elevation. It sees 40% new French oak for 12 months. It has a rounded, winsome bouquet with dark cherries, boysenberry and blueberry fruit that is neatly subsumed into the oak. The palate is medium-bodied with a more structured and ‘grippy’ opening than I was anticipating, yet there is also lip-smacking salinity and a detailed mineral-driven finish. Drink this over the next decade
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.